CBH Talk | Women Laughing: A Film Screening and Panel Discussion

In celebration of Women’s History Month, join us for a screening of the documentary Women Laughing, a joyful tribute to female humor and sensibility as expressed through the works and words of The New Yorker magazine’s women cartoonists. Directed by four-decade New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly and award-winning filmmaker Kathleen Hughes, the film shines a spotlight on the sometimes quirky, occasionally angry, often poignant, but always insightful expression of women’s perspective and humor. 

Following the screening, a panel discussion will feature four of the New Yorker cartoonists featured in the film: Liza Donnelly, Emily Flake, Liana Finck, and Bishakh Som. Together they reflect on their creative practices, female wit, and the power of women’s observations to bring insight, connection, cultural critique, and a hearty chuckle. Stand up comedian, writer and podcast host Ophira Eisenberg moderates.

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Participants

Liza Donnelly is a writer and cartoonist for The New Yorker Magazine, where she has been drawing cartoons and writing about culture for forty years. She has been a contributor to CBS News and CNN, creating political cartoons and animation, as well as live-drawing special cultural and political events. Donnelly writes and draws for publications including The New York Times and CNN Opinion pages and The Washington Post. Her popular TED talk was translated into 42 languages and viewed over 1.5 million times. She is the author/editor of eighteen books for adults and children, most notably Very Funny Ladies, a history of women cartoonists of The New Yorker.

 

 

Ophira Eisenberg is a standup comedian, writer, and podcast host (NPR, CBS, The Moth, HBO, Comedy Central, iHeart) who headlines theaters and comedy venues across the world, tours regularly with the Moth Mainstage, and hosts the weekly parenting-comedy podcast Parenting is a Joke (Webby Finalist for Best Host). Her new comedy special, produced by Lewis Black/Stark Raving Black Productions, will be streaming in Spring 2026. She also hosted NPR’s trivia comedy show Ask Me Another for 9 years. Her breakout memoir Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy (Seal Press) has been optioned for a television series, and her solo show Leaving A Mark: A Comedy About Scars won Women in the Arts & Media Award for Solo Show Scripts. Photo by Mindy Tucker.

 

 

 

Liana Finck is a cartoonist, illustrator and regular contributor to The New Yorker where she also authors the “Dear Pepper” advice-from-a-dog column. As the author of eight books, her work also frequently appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine and more. She is the recipient of Fulbright, Guggenheim and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. Photo by Jorge Colombo

 

 

 

Emily Flake is a cartoonist, writer, and comedian whose work has appeared in The New Yorker since 2008. She is the author of several books, most recently Joke in a Box: How to Write and Draw Jokes. She was a Yaddo fellow in 2025, and is the owner and operator of the St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency in Williamsport, PA. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, her daughter, and an absurdly large cat. Photo by Mindy Tucker

 

 

 

Bishakh Som’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, We’re Still Here (the first all-trans comics anthology), Black Warrior Review, VICE, Buzzfeed, The Brooklyn Rail, the acclaimed Graphic Canon series and more. Her graphic novels include Apsara Engine (winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel and a Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ Comics) and Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir (also a nominee for a Lambda.) She received a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University and lives in Brooklyn.